I would have made it The Daily Rant, but I'm not that dedicated and someone had taken the title long ago, anyway. Probably someone with talent. Go figure.

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Should I call an orange “Orange”?

Currently, if your kid is fat, you don’t have to tell him he’s “fat.” According to the Center for Disease Control, the correct term for doctors and parents to use with overweight children is “at risk for overweight” if their BMI is in the 85 to 94 percentile, and “overweight” if they are 95 and above. The same percentiles for adults make you “overweight” then “obese.”

The CDC felt that telling a kid he or she was “obese” would have a negative effect, and that a more diplomatic approach would be more effective.

Seems to be working really well. Now that 17 percent of kids have BMIs in the 95th or higher percentile, and 34 percent in the 85 to 94 bracket, perhaps it’s time to stop being “politically correct” and start telling mini-whales that they are, in fact, mini-whales.

Now groups of doctors are seeking to change the terms used to categorize children with weight issues. Of course, parents and fat kids are appalled. Here are some gem quotes from the latter group:

Ok, first of all, you’re fucking SEVENTEEN and have had gastric bypass???

Look, if you’re seventeen and so fat that doctors consider you a viable candidate to get your stomach stapled, you better fucking know “what obese means.” The best part is she says, “I still don’t understand it.”

HOW FUCKING CLEAR DOES IT NEED TO BE? Obese = fat. If you are obese, you are fat. FAT FAT FAT. Look in the MOTHERFUCKING mirror. Do you see how you have no neck, yet three separate chins? Do you see those rolls under your breasts that stick out farther than your breasts? Do you see how rolls of extra oozage are covering your elbows and ankles? THOSE ARE YOU BEING FAT. If you have a LOT of fat, you are obese. If that’s not clear enough, we can weigh you and provide you with a number that you can check against a chart that will tell you whether or not you are OBESE. There is not much to understand here.

Also, how does a child get to the point where she needs gastric bypass? What kind of piece-of-shit lets their child blow up to the point where she could die of heart disease before she is twenty five? There is no possible way she is eating enough food to sustain that weight without you enabling her. Don’t give me that shit that she “eats what every other normal person eats.” It takes nearly 4,000 calories a day to sustain 400 lbs, unless you have a REAL metabolic disorder. Normal people don’t eat 4,000 calories a day! How is this not child abuse?

Here’s another gem quote:

“Maria Bailey of Pompano Beach, Fla., whose 12-year-old daughter, Madison, is self-consciously overweight, opposes the proposed change. She said their pediatrician has told her daughter to exercise more and see a nutritionist, but ‘hasn't told her that she's in a (weight) category.’

‘We're already raising a generation of teenagers who have eating disorders,’ Bailey said. ‘I think it would just perpetuate that.’"

Hey, guess what Maria? Your kid already HAS a fucking eating disorder if she is TWELVE and obese! Believe it or not, eating waaay too much and not exercising is equally as good a way to kill yourself as starving yourself or binging and purging. Being fat or skinny is not just about appearances, though let’s not pretend that being grossly overweight is not going to be a setback socially. It also could cost you a job, or, like, your life.

Chicago pediatrician Rebecca Unger she likes using the term “at risk for overweight” because it gives patients hope that “we can do something about it.”

You know what the term “obese” would give patients? A fucking WAKE UP CALL. Instead of “we can do something about it” how about, “DO something about it, before it starts having consequences.”

Why does everyone in this country want to sugar coat everything? Telling kids they are fat — if they are fat — is not going to “perpetuate the myth that everyone needs to fit into the ‘Hollywood ideal’.” It’s really not difficult to teach your kids what a “healthy” body weight is. Even if you think BMI is a bunch of bilge, you can look at your kid and know if he or she is healthy or too heavy or too skinny. If your kid is technically obese, can you honestly say he or she eats a healthy, moderate calorie, nutritiously balanced diet? How much soda does he or she drink at 200 calories a pop and 10 tablespoons of sugar? How many nights do you eat fast food for dinner, which has an average calorie count of 3,500 PER PERSON. Does he or she get exercise, for at least 30 minutes every day? How many HOURS does he or she spend on the TV, computer or playing video games? Yeah…that’s what I thought.

It’s time to wake up and smell the bacon grease. If it’s hard for your kid to hear she is obese from a doctor, imagine how much harder it is for her to hear, every day at school, the taunts and mockery of her classmates? Because you can sure as hell bet they aren’t worried about being “politically correct” when they address her “weight issue.” Reality isn’t going to go away because you found a nicer term to refer to it by. So just deal with it.

12 Comments:

b said...

i couldn't agree with you more. fat people need to recognize their fatness no matter what their age. making it sound all nice nice isn't helping anyone. especially the kids who are getting tortured at school.

i was just reading an article about how babies learn habits about food and eating from their parents and surroundings right from the beginning. so if you're stuffing shit into your mouth, or have bad eating habits in general, your baby is seeing that and learning from you (from birth). so where do you think they got their fatness from huh?

Parents also need to realize that while plunking their kids down in front of DVDs and video games might be easier and more convenient, it is essentially harming their kids' health. My parents took me for walks, or went bike riding with me. One side effect to having kids is that you have to spend time with them. If more parents did that, I'll bet fewer kids would be fat. Or "nearing fat."

seriously. you're fucking fat. maybe if you get ridiculed enough, you'll say "hey, i don't like being called fat, i'll try NOT being fat!"

i was an overly skinny adolescent. i know it's hard to believe, but i would get made fun of for being a skinny little nerd. even my family would make fun of how skinny i was. so eventually, it really bothered me, and i tried to put on some weight (good weight). i started going to the gym, working out, building muscle. in a couple years i was very fit and felt good about myself. then i went into the real world and grew the BMB (business man's body), but that's a different story. even then, i noticed my weight, my gut, and the fact that people were now starting to call me fat. so what did i do? went on a fucking diet to lose weight!!

i gaurantee you that if people "sugar coated" the fact that i was too skinny, or getting fat, i would have just been content and probably start to develop health problems, or get fatter. i also wouldn't be as happy with my healthy body cause i'd just be a big glob of shit.

see there's a difference between some people. i for instance, know that i'm a fat lazy pig, and i feel guilty everytime i shove a greasy buttered biscuit into my face. but that's the thing, i feel guilty, and do something about it. i go excersize, i eat a little better the next day, etc. obviously i'm not a picture of perfect health, but i reckognize that fact.

there's people out there that have no problem shoving a double bacon cheeseburger into their mouth and washing it down with a choco-shake. then they look at themselves in teh mirror, think "wow i'm kinda hefty, i read that diet soda makes you fat, i think i'll switch to regular coke."

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